Ashland University Student Presents Research Findings

Rachel Day, a senior biology major at Ashland University, presented her work on a new method for improving the visibility of a group of very small aquatic crustaceans at the 2010 meeting of the Ecological Society of America held August 1-6 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

She is shown in the middle of this photo talking about her project, titled “Green fluorescent protein-labeled Escherichia coli: An effective tool to enhance visibility of small Daphnia when monitoring behavioral responses in tank experiments.”

The overall goal of her project is to be able to study the movement of these animals in response to chemical signals in tank experiments. The method is being developed in collaboration with Ashland University biology and environmental science faculty Dr. Andrew Greene and Dr. Patty Saunders, who were co-authors on the presentation. Rachel has been doing full-time research with Dr. Saunders and Dr. Jeff Weidenhamer, chemistry and environmental science, as part of the Ashland University Science Summer Research Program and supported by a grant from the Merck Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to her studies and directed research project, Rachel is the 2010-2011 president of Ashland University’s biology honorary Beta Beta Beta.